September 08, 2009

OpenOffice is one among many programs that lets us dock small tool windows to the main application window instead of keeping them as floating tool windows. OpenOffice blog explains how this is done.

If you have Compiz running on your machine, you might find that docking doesn't work anymore. Moving the tool window near the application window won't show any sign of docking at all. You need to disable a certain Compiz setting for this to work. Here's how you would do it:

Open Compiz Settings Manager. You can do it by running ccsm command, or choosing Advanced Desktop Effects Settings from K Menu > Settings on KDE.

Click on Move Window item from the right-hand side pane. (Not on the checkbox; click on the icon or the text "Move Window" itself. That opens the options window for this item.)